Wedding Week...

The week of the wedding, I only worked through Wednesday.  Kevin worked through Thursday.
My Thursday was spent getting my rings cleaned, eyebrows threaded, picking up some new clothes at the mall, shopping for gift bags for our wedding party and packing those gifts, grabbing my pea coat from work...that I had forgotten on Wednesday, forgetting to pick up final stationary from Melody and racing as fast as I could to her house to grab that (two hours late)...scarfing down a Chick-fil-a sandwich on the way back to the house...frantically cleaning so Christi could comfortably stay in the guest bedroom.  And then waiting for the bridesmaids to start arriving!
Oh...and my internet went out, which aided in my lateness to Melody's (because I wasn't getting her e-mails saying, "are you still coming?" "You're an hour late.") and forced me to walk around the block checking e-mail on my iPhone.  I was down the street, doing just that, when Jamie arrived first with Hayden and Nolan in tow...then came Christi and Ashley.  The four of us went out to Cheesecake Factory for a last dinner before the wedding action really kicked into gear.

Dinner at Cheesecake Factory

Then we returned to my house where my sister and Allyson arrived and the girls surprised me with a bag of gifts. 

Bag of goodies!

I was able to do my last minute "inspection" of the girls in their dresses and shoes!  Seriously, planning a wedding when your bridesmaids are so far apart, in different countries, is pretty difficult and this was the first time they were all in the same place with their wedding gear!  And they looked great!

Bridesmaids in one place!!

Then came arranging my "bouquet" for the rehearsal and hanging around a bit before I sent everyone home!

Bouquet making!

My girls!!!

Friday, I woke up with a bad headache and a stomach ache to boot!  I don't think I got out of bed until over in the afternoon.  I was a wreck!  I wanted to run away and cancel the wedding!  The added pressure came when family started calling to say they were in town.  I was still in bed and I didn't want to have to "be on" and deal with anyone.  Maybe I just needed a day to wallow in my pity and feel bad for myself while I was feeling sick, but that's what happened.  Kevin finally convinced me to shower and try to pull myself together and I managed to stomach bits of a baked potato to have some nourishment!  Thank goodness Christi was staying at my house because she was able to field calls and just hold the fort down while I wasn't feeling good. (Thank you so much Baby!  You saved the day!)  The break in the day happened when my mama called and said she was on the way to Raleigh to pick up Kevin's groom's cake in Cary.  That was fine and dandy, but then I got a follow-up call with her saying that the cake wouldn't fit in the cooler she had brought along.  Obviously, I couldn't put a surprise cake in my fridge with Kevin and his family coming over, so she came to get me and I jumped in the car and off we went to Gravy to see if they would keep it for us.  And they did!  Thank you Lord!

And then on the drive back to my house, I thought, "better call the church florist and just make sure everything is good for the alter flowers."  So, I did and that's when I was forced to transition from "sicky, feel sorry for myself, girl" to..."you better not mess with me, I'm getting married in 2 days, bride."  So, Saturday, the day of our rehearsal at the church...there was to be a memorial service scheduled about 3 hours before our rehearsal.  They had asked to have flowers at the memorial service, so our wedding flowers were to be set up around noon on Saturday and stay through the church service on Sunday and on to our wedding that afternoon.  Well...when I called the florist to make sure she knew we wanted autumnal flowers, she proceeded to tell me that the flowers were light pink and light blue for the memorial service and that's what would stay for our wedding.  WHAT?  Who the crap orders light pink and light blue flowers for a fall wedding.  Definitely NOT THIS BRIDE!  I was livid and I let the flower lady know.  In her defense, she said she hadn't gotten the message about fall flowers, but the memorial service folks had called her and specifically asked for pink and blue....the only problem...I was paying for the flowers, not the memorial service folks.  They were just getting flowers on the alter because of me.  So...I proceeded to call the flower lady's contact, who didn't know anything about the situation, but said she hoped she hadn't messed anything up.  Well, someone had, because the memorial service folks were just steam-rolling everyone else!  I finally got her to understand that my money was paid and the flowers on the alter for our wedding needed to be reds and oranges and yellows and greens...and NOT light pink and blue.  She said she'd figure it out money-wise and for me to just make sure the flower lady would agree to make another arrangement for our wedding.  That call went much better!  She was more than happy to make another arrangement, she just wanted to make sure she'd get paid....and I told her she would be.  Ahh...and that shook me out of my "sicky" mode.  When you have a crisis and you're the only one that can save the day, superhero clothes have to come on and you just have to get it done!

I returned to my house to find Kevin and about 15 other people (family and friends) gathering to go to the NC State Fair!  It was loud in the house, but all was well.  Crisis averted!  We all hung out for about 30 minutes before splitting up into cars and driving over to the fairgrounds.  I still wasn't feeling so great...probably because I'd only had a few bites of a baked potato all day...so I was ready to hit the food.  However, we had about 15-20 people that wanted to stick together the whole time...impossible!  By the time we made it to "the best corn booth at the fair", I had smoke coming out of my ears and I was about to pass out from hunger.  The rest of the night went okay.  I still had my headache, but we ate (corn, ham sandwich, fried cheese), we walked, the guys played games and won prizes...Kevin won me a bear...and we made it out with everyone in the same group!  I went home and went straight to bed around 9pm!  Sleep was necessary!

Games

Bear Kevin won!

Saturday morning I woke up headache free, but feeling a little sick on my stomach.  That I recognized!!  Just the normal anxious tummy I've had my whole life.  (Seriously!  It's a curse!  I used to have it in elementary and middle school so badly that I had to take anxiety medicine so I was able to eat in the morning, or I just wouldn't eat all day and the stomach pain would continue all day because of nerves and an empty stomach.  I even managed to give myself a stomach ulcer in middle school.)  I proceeded to take my special anxiety medicine, prescribed just for the wedding, and then climbed back into bed to write all of my thank-you notes to my bridesmaids and my card for Kevin for the wedding day.  It was really relaxing and felt good easing into the day.  But, then it was "go" time.  I showered and got ready, packed the car and Christi and I hopped in and drove over to my mama's best friend's house.  Sue hosted a bridesmaids brunch for me and all of the bridesmaids, my mom and Kevin's mom, and wow did she roll out the red carpet.  Not only is her house like a museum...just so beautiful and everything in it's place...but she had thought of every detail.  We had mini muffins and juice, complete with "V" napkins.  Then, we sat down for the main meal.  Salad and quiche and baked apples and a wonderful chocolaty dessert.  Sadly, my stomach wasn't quite strong enough to handle the full meal, but I did the best I could and really enjoyed the meal.  I so wish I could eat it all over again today.  I'd clean my plate!

Sue's beautifully decorated table!

Girls at bridesmaids brunch!

Me and Mrs. Sue!

After our morning at Sue's, we headed to Cameron Village for manicures and pedicures...

Cameron Nails!

...checked into the hotel...and changed for the rehearsal.  The day just flew!  By the time we changed clothes, we were already running late for the rehearsal.  We arrived and made it through the entire ceremony, with some difficulty.

The only picture I have from the wedding rehearsal (Thanks Leah!)

Figuring out communion was tricky and nothing was made clear at the end of our time in the church.  Oh well, we had a deadline for when we had to arrive at Gravy, so we headed out.  By the time we all arrived at Gravy, I was ready for some food and thank goodness we chose Gravy because it was amazingly great food!  We had an awesome time relaxing with family and the bridal party and really enjoyed ourselves.  There was food and drinks and passing out gifts and the thumbprint tree and then dessert.

Bridesmaids and their dates at the rehearsal dinner.

My mama putting her thumbprint on the tree!

My girls know I LOVE purple, so they all dressed for the occasion.  No planning involved here!

We left and I headed back to the hotel with my girls, where we stayed up a bit just figuring out last minute details for the next day.  That, too, was relaxing and by that point, I was excited, but tired, and it really didn't seem possible that the very next day I would wake up for the very last time as Miss Victoria Elizabeth Ewing.  I headed to bed around 10pm and slept pretty well in the King Bed by myself.  My only wish is that I could have gotten a few more hours of shut-eye.  I think I run best off of at least 9 hours. :)